Don't let that smile fool you.
Posted on 12/29/2001 6:30:47 AM PST by veronica
He's vigorous. He's direct. At nearly 70, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is TV's newest stud.
Forget The Guardian's Simon Baker, Smallville's Tom Welling, or 24's Kiefer Sutherland. The sexiest man on television is a grandpop with a throaty laugh and a confidence so overpowering it's made entire countries go weak in the knees.
No doubt about it, Donald Rumsfeld is a stud muffin.
Oh sure, he's a bespectacled government bureaucrat pushing 70. But the secretary of defense has a quality that many women adore.
He's as self-assured as a bull in a cow pasture.
Next to this ex-Navy flyboy and self-made millionaire, humorless careerists are but empty suits, doubt-ridden heroes are boring, and sensitive New Age males look like big whiny babies.
Rumsfeld, in contrast, looks like a good time. In a recent interview, Larry King asked, "Secretary Rumsfeld . . . do you like this image? You now have this new image called sex symbol."
Rumsfeld laughed heartily and replied, "Oh, come on." But he seemed delighted, and later allowed that he could be a sex symbol "for the AARP."
He's direct, plainspoken, full of that quality John F. Kennedy so admired: vigor.
He enjoys sparring with reporters at news conferences. Exuding bonhomie, he gets his points across while revealing very little of what everybody is there to find out. These performances are among the best on television, depicted by political cartoonist Mike Peters as "Must See TV."
Rumsfeld is decisive, a quality Saturday Night Live recognized in a recent skit: The President is in a meeting, taking a call from boring Al Gore, who drones on and on while Bush's advisers point impatiently to their watches and Bush, a prisoner of his breeding, seeks a polite end to the conversation.
Rumsfeld strides in. Grasping the situation immediately, he grabs the receiver and barks, "Get off the phone, Al. Now!" A startled Gore hangs up.
Talk about a man of action.
In the Navy, Rumsfeld was a champion wrestler. Now, he hunts elk.
He's been around Washington forever - this is his second go-round as defense secretary - but it took a war to make him a celeb.
After attending Princeton University on a scholarship, he married his childhood sweetheart, Joyce, in 1954, served in the Navy, and did six years in Congress and four in the Nixon administration.
He was ambassador to NATO when President Gerald R. Ford called him back and made him the youngest defense secretary in the country's history. He wasn't well-liked. Over the years, he has annoyed people by ignoring criticism and pushing to get things done. He used to be called imperious. Now he's seen as determined.
He's also telegenic, which became apparent when the spotlight found him in September. The camera loves him. He's the media star of the war on terror.
He has reappeared on the scene at a time when popular culture is again embracing big-shouldered, go-for-it guys, from stoic Russell Crowe in the Oscar-winning Gladiator to bully Teddy Roosevelt in the best-selling Theodore Rex, to buff Will Smith as The Greatest in Ali.
Classical Roman virtues such as courage and determination, so passe in the high-flying '90s, are again in vogue.
Steely confidence is admired, in burly firemen, guys who attack armed hijackers with their bare hands, 19-year-olds who parachute into battlefields in the middle of the night - and straight-shooting Rummy, the senior with swagger.
Manly men, every one. It's good to have them back.
Don't let that smile fool you.
A real woman is desirable at ANY age too!
If you shared a cubicle with the likes of Richard Berke, you would be starved for ANY male attention, no matter how boorish.
This IS funny. I guess 'male' and 'man' are NOT the same thing and 'male' was used most appropriately within this context.
Compare that to John Edwards who is good-looking, but nothing more. Even snakes are pretty, but sexy? No way.
Yummy Rummy"
Yes, Rummy is terrific. And there is a female counterpart for us real men:
mmmmm....
Yummy Mummy
That's what I meant by "gravitas"!
g
I do find him competent. (And that's enough to sing his praises).
Honesty in a woman is soooooo attractive too!
And how about intelligence!
Reminds me of that song Carol Burnette used to sing.."I Fell in Love With John Foster Dulles". LOL
So true!!
I've been reading the posts about Power being an ingredient of adoration and that may be a plus - but Clinton and Kissinger both had power and they would NEVER make my list of men that I admire or would even want to know!!
"No, I can't say that I do."
Well--I do. He's a lot like me! And I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaally sexy--if I do say so myself. (And my wife agrees.)
Ah yes, and suddenly the human female remembers why these were the sought after men. Feminists drained the testosterone from the male population in a vain attempt to prove that there is no difference between the sexes. But there is, and we should all celebrate it.
I love it that MEN are back in vogue, I hope it stays that way. We're fortunate that we didn't eradicate it, only pushed it out of the spotlight.
Yeth......... LOL
Takes the words right out of my mouth. Big mega dittos from this gal!
Yes, but speaking as a guy, nothing outraged me more than to see women swoon after Bill Clinton for no reason other than that he was powerful.
Donald Rumsfield, however, is a man of character. He didn't get to where he is by lying, he got there by hard work and sacrifice. He deserves the respect that women are giving him.
(And the other nice thing about guys with character is that they stick with their wives and don't take all the other chicks from the rest of us guys!)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.